Double life of a showbiz priest

Fr Michael Cleary was one of the greatest communicators the Catholic Church in Ireland has known, a man who could reach out to young people in a unique manner, the epitome of a young person's priest. He chain-smoked and told slightly racy jokes about nuns. He was favoured by the Church for one very specific reason: no matter how informal and even risque his delivery, his message was the same: that the Church's laws must be obeyed. But the gap between what he preached and what he practised was incredible - David McKittrick